Thousands of Hungarians marched in Budapest’s biggest Pride parade on Saturday, amid tension sparked by a series of anti-LGBTQ steps by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
After an “anti-pedophilia” law was adopted by the Hungarian Parliament last month, Orban’s critics at home and in Brussels have accused him of conflating pedophilia with homosexuality.
“Many people are dismayed at the new law and the anti-gay propaganda,” said Johanna Majercsik, a spokesperson for the Budapest Pride organizer.
Photo: Reuters
“They want to show their support for the LGBTQ community,” Majercsik said, adding that this year’s parade was the biggest in its 26-year history.
According to an Agence France-Presse photographer, more than 10,000 people took part in the colorful parade, which moved along a main boulevard before crossing the Danube River to finish in a park.
Although Orban portrays the bill as protecting children, LGBTQ leaders say that it stigmatizes homosexuals and aims to shore up the premier’s radical right-wing support ahead of an election next year.
“I’ve never been at a Pride before, although I always rooted for LGBTQ people and understood their problems, but this year I really got angry as there is so much propaganda against them, they need to see many people supporting them,” said Zsofi Varadi, a 46-year-old mother of two, before putting on a rainbow-colored T-shirt.
Varadi then headed off on the parade, which passed off peacefully.
Rainbow-colored flags hung from several balconies on buildings along the route, while placards carried by the marches mocked Orban and his ruling Fidesz party whose lawmakers introduced the bill to parliament.
Orban on Wednesday said that a national vote would be held to gauge domestic support for the law. The move came after the European Commission launched legal action against Budapest over the measure.
A group of about 200 counterprotesters along the route held banners reading “Stop LGBTQ pedophilia,” and shouted homophobic insults over lines of police who separated them from the marchers.
“The anti-pedophilia law has given patriots like us a weapon to protect our children from deviants like them,” a speaker told counterprotesters through a megaphone.
Since the law was on June 15 approved by the Fidesz-dominated parliament, several homophobic attacks have been reported on local media, while LGBTQ advocates have warned of growing fear in their community.
“It’s kind of scary to be honest, to be myself as a gender-fluid person, you can be beaten up or stuff like that,” said Artur, a 16-year-old marcher.
“Pride marches in eastern Europe especially are less about celebration and more about protest, with more to protest against every year,” said Luca Dudits, 24, who coheads the Hatter Society LGBTQ rights group. “It is now more important than ever to take to the streets together in this fight for the rights and freedom of LGBTQ people.”
Several dozen ambassadors based in the Hungarian capital also attended the march, after more than 40 embassies and foreign cultural institutes earlier last week issued a joint statement of support for LGBTQ rights.
The latest legislation is seen by its supporters as part of Orban’s project since he took power in 2010 to reshape Hungary into a so-called “illiberal” socially conservative bastion.
The latest law was originally limited to tougher action against child sexual abuse, but its final version banned the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality and gender reassignment to those under the age of 18.
The referendum called by Orban would comprise five questions, including asking Hungarians if they agree that schools should be permitted to “talk about sexuality to their children without their consent.”
It would also ask them if they support “the promotion of sex reassignment treatment for minors” or the “unrestricted exposure of children to harmful sexual content.”
No date has been set for the referendum.
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS